I’ve been thinking about this blog entry for quite some time and I even took the pictures to go with it a while ago. So the problem has been finding time to sit at the computer and enter the data plus I can’t seem to find the pictures that I took! We have a file marked construction and then the heading under that is the years (yes years – file starts in 2007) and then the months. They didn’t seem to be in there which then sent me to the personal picture file which again starts in years (digital since 2004) and then seasons usually. So I have spent considerable time looking at files trying to find the pictures.
Loads of people ask where the house is and where our land goes to. Neither of these are an easy description. You can’t plunk our address into your GPS or you will go to the mailbox in Aberdeen. We don’t have a road address although we do have a land description which is SE – 38 – 27 – 3 – W3rd – which really doesn’t make much sense to most people unless you have a rural background and have access to an RM map. We are impatiently waiting for Google Earth to update so that we can be seen by air – we can find our land but there is nothing on it. I did post a picture taken from an airplane while on my way to Halifax last year which shows our land and surrounding area.
We did have an airplane fly over head during the summer – posted that photo as well but unfortunately they weren’t taking pictures we could have access to. Perhaps someday we will get overhead with a camera.Keep in mind that I couldn’t ask the pilot of the commercial airline if he would mind flying just a big closer to my land. So I took the picture, cropped our quarter section and then enlarged it and then marked the boundaries. The quality is not all that good – sorry!
We own the South east quarter and situated our house in the north west quarter of the quarter (boy that sentence has a lot of quarters in it!) but that does help to provide orientation. We are set a significant ways off of the grid road – this was done to minimize noise and dust as well as to provide privacy. It also means that from many areas on said road we don’t seem to exist! this road and the fence line represents our west boundary as far as the garage. then the fence jogs west and it looks like our property juts over but it doesn’t. We are just providing good stewardship for our neighbor!This photo shows our road facing south and running into Bergheim Road. Bergheim Road dead ends down the hill at Old 27 (name of the road – obviously used to be the old connecting highway between 41 and 5). This intersection marks the south east corner of our quarter – the house is just barely visible from there (I’m standing in the box of the truck so from your average vehicle probably not). Old 27 runs north and south so that is our eastern boundary. This is the north east corner of our property – you can tell our property line because it changes from hay to a wheat field. I thought you could no see the house from that corner but in fact standing on the truck taking this picture you can see the top tiny little bit. But mostly what you see is a wonderful expanse of native prairie. This is the lower end of the coulee (or ravine) that runs just north of our house. This is where we first got out and walked the land – we walked up to the falling down fence that you often see in pictures. This is where we fell in love with the view and the quiet.
Our north boundary is the hardest one to fathom. there is nothing that really makes it visible as the section was fenced topographically by the homesteaders and so the ravine was left untouched. Our north line is about 75 yards south of our neighbors fence which only comes part way down. If you go up the ravine from the north east corner you will eventually walk into a very big slough (or pond). At the north end of it our north and west boundaries intersect hence the lack of a fence line! I couldn’t find a picture that shows this illusive line so it is as clear here as it is when I point it out from the attic!
So that is our orientation of the land. Now to the placing of the house – the question here is who should explain this one? You see the engineer set the house on an angle to better take advantage of the slope for the walk out and to continually confuse his wife. He says put it on the east wall – I say which is the east wall. Really the corners face south, east, north, west and the actual walls face south east etc. But he disagrees with me so often cant find the took i set upon the east wall! Serves him right! You will note that the garage is set straight north and south – probably because of how many discussions we had had regarding the house!This is looking west towards the yard site. It gives a good view of the house complete with walk out and the garage tucked in behind it at a different angle. It also shows the walk out with the siding complete – now just imagine the rest of the house looking like that!It was quite a blah day when I set out to take these photos and so the colors aren’t very intense and it actually looks a little hazy – which is wasn’t. But it did seem very brown so I set out looking for some color and I will end with this very pretty closing shot.
LATE BREAKING NEWS – I have our longitude and latitude for GPS coordinates. They are N52 degrees, 12.426 and W106 degrees 22.329. Also found out that our altitude is 558m. And from the Ron’s south window the compass pointed east!

3 Responses to The Lay of the Land

Hi Guys,
Gidday from New Zealand. Great pictures, especially the last one. The wheat (if that is what it is) is so clear! I can say that I am slightly missing the flat, open expanse of the prairies. Driving in NZ is a very windy, hilly and twisty affair but I have only been car sick once so far!! I will let you know next time my brother-in-law flies into Saskatoon if you want to go up for some more pictures! Talk to you soon, Karin